Jim Philpott, supervisor at the Guildford bike project, is helping to donate bikes to migrants in Calais (Image: UGC)

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A social enterprise in Guildford is supporting an initiative to donate bikes to migrants at camps in Calais.

Jim Philpott, who is a supervisor at the Guildford Bike Project, was inspired by the Critical Mass to Calais campaign, which seeks to help refugees who have been evicted from Calais and have moved into makeshift camps 7km from the town centre.

Mr Philpott has committed to send at least 10 bikes to France via the Critical Mass team, and is using cycles which he knows would not be able to be sold second-hand at the bike project, but that still work.

The worsening situation at the port , where thousands of migrants have gathered in the hope of crossing the Channel has attracted criticism as French and British authorities have been struggling to stop them from stowing away in lorries and trains.

Whilst Mr Philpott has taken on the task himself of donating the bikes, the Guildford Bike Project is supporting him, and he has appealed for supporters to get in touch.

“I got told about it through a friend, and we have bikes that won’t make it to the shop, and essentially could get scrapped,” Mr Philpott said.

“I just wanted to help out. It is an opportunity to empower people on a grass roots level.”

Through working as a cameraman in the past, Mr Philpott has spent time at Palestinian refugee camps and camps in north Algeria, and said he knows the sort of conditions under which people are forced to live.

“From my experience, I don’t like the fact we forget they are human beings, and I think a lot of the figures published in the UK press are totally inaccurate and the amount of people that come into the country are so small, but I’m not really into that side of it,” he said. “If you take fences down, there are no walls, and the grass is never greener then, the grass is green for everyone. The bikes will empower people and this is a little way to help people.”

Mr Philpott plans to go to Brixton next week to deliver the cycles to the campaign.

From there, cyclists will ride the bikes to Calais over the August bank holiday weekend.

There are around 2,000 people in the Calais refugee camps according to the Critical Mass group, which claims they are living in conditions of poor sanitation with minimal access to services, having left their countries due to war and persecution, in search of safety.

By donating the bikes, the aim is to help the refugees cycle to local shops and improve their quality of life.

Mr Philpott said he recognised that there may be some people who would not agree with donating the bikes to the refugees.

John Thurlow, the co-ordinator of the Guildford Bike Project, said: “It is Jim’s initiative, but the bike project is supporting him in this initiative.”

Mr Philpott said: “If we can give bikes to people and help them out, that is better than them being scrapped.

“I am just happy to spend a bit of my free time actually doing something good.

“If you empower people, they become part of the solution, not part of the problem.”